It’s no secret that we, in the 21st century, live our lives through social media via computers, smartphones, tablets and other technology. And it’s no secret that some of us are more extreme than others:

• There are those who simply share their daily findings; whether it be music, art, thoughts, a photo etc in the hope to inspire others and, in return, being inspired by those who post in a similar fashion.
• The ones who rarely post but are constantly tagged in drunken night out photos.
• Those that use it as a work tool, sharing and keeping those that like their page updated with the latest news.
• There are the ones who use it as a platform to vent their anger, moans and mishaps, usually posting a sentence like, 'life is so hard sometimes', encouraging people to ask what's wrong etc.
• Then, there are those who like to post every moment of their life and use it as a way to get as much attention as possible in order to feel better about themselves, but ultimately not enjoying what’s going on in the real world around them in that moment because they are too busy updating their status.

Depending on what kind of user you are, you will be in for a surprise over the next few weeks as Twitter and Facebook are offering new services, ‘Facebook’s Year in Review’ and ‘Your Year on Twitter’. Google kick started the trend, then Twitter followed suit, encouraging Facebook to get in on the end of year fun, who added a twist to what they were offering their users. Where Google was collating lists of the most searched for celebs, topics, films etc Facebook stepped up the interactivity of all this activity and personalized it so that it gives you a unique opportunity to look back at the events of the last 12 months, highlighting your ‘best’ moments.

Now, in England, there was a popular TV show called ‘This Is Your Life’ in which the lives of us ‘normal’ people were celebrated through stories told by family members and friends. You could kind of say that this will have a similar effect, for the television show also brought out surprise guests as blasts from the past… you can be sure that Facebook is more than capable of doing the same thing, too.

Now this is where it might get dangerous; as I said above, we all use Social Media in very different ways and for very different purposes but you never know what will be liked, shared or commented on more than other posts. This means that anything is up for being dragged out of the past, whether you like it or not; over publicized relationships, embarrassing night out photos or maybe that bitchy thing you said about a friend that everyone liked.

Twitter is doing something similar with the help of Vizify.com, which is offering to scrape all of your Twitter litter from the last year and building it all into a nice neat graph for you, showing you anything from your most Retweeted post, avid follower to your most followed Tweeter… you with me? What Twitter via Vizify.com is offering is more professional than what it is that Facebook’s year review is offering, giving you the option to apply the graphs and charts produced to be linked to your LinkedIn profile etc. So, depending on what kind of Twitter user you are, you could, in fact, discover something more revealing about yourself than previously thought. For better or for worse. My friend found out that she had an unhealthy habit of retweeting anything that Britney Spears posted.

So, how about it? Do you want to reflect on the last year, digging into the social media past year (which I think is about 3 years in real life)?

Written by Ben Taylor

Cover Credits: As you can see by the cover, Swide's Fashion Editor, Yuri Ahn, has already delved into the past year.